The Netflix Streaming Endorsement: Thief

At first glance, Michael Mann's Thief (1981) seems typical of a certain strain of moody '80s film style: Its sumptuous high-contrast cinematography, expressionistic primary color lighting, and pulsating Tangerine Dream score make it in some ways the decade's quintessential genre film. But while the legacy of Thief endures largely for aesthetic reasons, its most distinctive quality in fact has more to do with its studied commitment to naturalism. Far more than any single visual or aural predilection, the one element common to all of Michael Mann's films — from his romanticized early pictures to his more impressionistic late-career experiments with digital video — is their almost obsessive dedication to detail and real-world accuracy. The stories are often legendary: One hears of Mann instructing Colin Farrell to accompany the police on drug busts in preparation for Miami Vice, or of Mann spending six weeks of The Insider's pre-production period just meeting with Russell Crowe to give character notes. Whatever his indulgences as a visual stylist, Mann clearly believes in portraying the world as it really is.

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For Thief, the story of a veteran jewel thief (James Caan, never better) hoping to give up a life of crime to start a family, Mann went so far as to hire professional thieves as on-set consultants, whose guidance provided an unprecedented level of authenticity. Mann's camera, though certainly expressive, was nevertheless deeply attuned to the nuance of the procedures undertaken — from the start of the job straight through to its bitter end, Thief ensures that every detail is accurate. The result is a film of contradictory impulses: On the one hand, it looks and feels like a high-gloss fantasy, a dream world that gradually morphs into a nightmare from which our sympathetic antihero can't seem to wake up. But on the other, it's as gritty a crime picture as they come, dead set on getting even the smallest touches right. The combination makes for a movie unlike any other.